April Fool’s Extravaganza 2015

For those who have no idea where this came from, April Fool’s Day is also Roman New Year. Tradition was that on Roman New Year you’d celebrate with jokes and pranks. If you believe in the Constantine legend (no, not the comic book), it was the day that Emperor Constantine allowed a jester to take the throne for a day, saying that they could do a better job running the country. They passed on edict that allowed absurdity for that day, hence April Fool’s.

Whatever the history, April Fool’s Day has long since been celebrated by folks around the world. Here’s some of this year’s offerings.

Pac Man on Google Maps – Have you ever looked at a map and wondered how it would play on pacman? Think no more! Google maps have brought about a new feature: Pac Man mode. With several famous locations already pre-designed, you can play your street on google maps. Here, we decided to try out what Disneyland in Anaheim would look like. Airports like LaGuardia in New York were like something out of a pac man nightmare, and for you OCD folks, the Taj Mahal garden would help you breath a sigh, until you start running from Inky, Pinky, Binky, or Clyde. Just head to google maps and check out the option on the lower left hand corner for the option.

Dog Attorney – Fans of the Capcom series Ace Attorney got a special dose today with the fabrication of Dog Attorney, which took the upcoming Ace Attorney title and poochafied it, changing the heroes into dog/human like creatures that would take you back to the pound puppy era. Check out the mock trailer above for a look

Google Panda – Perhaps Google’s most adorable release to date, if it was truly the case, however it wasn’t. Google Asia Pacific premiered their April Fool’s prank in the body of this cuddly stuffed panda, that’s offered in two sizes – small and large. With voice activated commands, this stuffed bear can respond to all your voice searches and with it’s bamboo grip, you have it cling on to you, no matter how active your lifestyle! For a demo video, check out the one below.

Steam running on Steam – One of the reasons we love ThinkGeek is because at any point during April Fool’s Day, we can’t tell if some of the items being offered are a hoax or legit, and better yet, some of the hoax items later become legitimate products (such as their canned unicorn meat or their can-in-stein). This year’s offerings includes a 360 Selfie Rig for $199.99, Power Wheels Desert Drifters (that looks straight out of Mad Max) for $298.98, a voltron cat condo for $189.99, a Clue Game of Thrones version (my personal favorite), and the Steam-Powered Steam Gaming Cabinet, which looks like something out of a steampunk fantasy. Not sure if any of these items are legit or not, but I can certainly see some of these coming out in mass market soon. Also note, if you head to the thinkgeek website, you may notice a mock “Two and a half Men” logo on their front page. You can try to click it, but it won’t send you anywhere.

Hulu is for the dogs – Hulu released a channel for April Fool’s catering to pet lovers called hulu pets, with mock shows like “The Real Pugs of Portland”, “The Bark” (spoofing on The Voice), “Bone Appetit” based on cooking competitions, and “Clawed City”, loosely playing off “Sex in the City”. They also have, what they’re calling “pet-approved programs” some of which are called “wheel of furtune”, which is a bunch of cute, small, furry creatures in a hamster wheel, “Having a Ball”, which is 2 minutes of a dog chasing a ball, “laser pointer: The series”, which is 45 seconds of… you guessed it: cats chasing a laser light. For those who love ferrets, they also have a show for that called “Follow the ferrets” and one more called “The Daily Feed” which is just 40 minutes of bird watching to upbeat jazz music.

Updated: 3:38PM ET

Amazon’s Throwback – Does this image look familiar to you? As Amazon’s April Fool prank, they decided to give a nod to their former selves by launching their classic homepage. Of course, this is only for show. The second you click on the page, it phases into the actual current Amazon homepage. At least we won’t have to use the old Craigslist method of searching for items, thanks!

Updated 5:07PM ET

The Rock Band crew is looking to get you a date! – Harmonix, the creator of Rock Bank and Dance Central are looking to get you a date, a digital one, that is, with their dating SIM for April Fool’s “ROMance Central“, which you can play for free right now online. Just like an online dating service, you create a profile, and then try to charm and dance your way into your interest’s heart. (You know what they say about a good dancer, right?) Just a note, like real online dating, you best look through their profile as well, or prepared to be SHUT DOWN!

Updated 5:51PM ET

MOVE OVER, CINDERELLA, ELSA’S MOVING IN! – Disney announced they’re renaming their prized Cinderella’s castle on September 8, 2015, from Cinderella’s castle to Elsa’s Ice Palace for the popular Disney character from their animated movie Frozen. Fans have taken up to twitter in arms over the whole change.

So they're changing the name of Cinderella's Castle to Elsa's Ice Palace at Disneyworld. Kind of upsetting. Should probably just Let It Go.

Update: 6:10PM ETTAKE THAT, APPLE! – Presumed to be a response to Apple’s attempt in developing an electric car, TESLA announced today that they’re creating a watch called the Model W (W for watch). They are warning everyone that it’s going to require a “strength of an orangutan” to wear this puppy.

Update: 6:21PM ET

For the facial hair deprived, Birchbox is offering a “mail-order beard box”. No more will you feel left out when you’re walking in hipster areas, or when the recent hipster fashion is flowers in your beard! You can purchase your own flavor saver, and annoy your significant other with your itchy 3 month growth of beard, no matter if you’re male, female, or other.

Air BnB Broke the Space/Time Continuum! – Blaming a former intern on some bad code (or should we say “acid trip”), Air BnB is shut down today due to a rift in the space/time continuum, proceeding from the stone age and now into the 1960’s. What messes us up even more is the fact that there’s code on the page that modulates the color to emulate an old tube television. Anyone born before 1989 will understand what we mean by this. Anyway, if you need to book a room, come back tomorrow, they’re asking.

The birds have taken over the farmhouse! – If Rovio ever decided to make this sequel to their popular Angry Birds franchise, we may seriously consider buying it. Agri Birds is Rovio’s take on what it’s like to live and work on the farm. Pushing chickens, shooting moles, dressing in inappropriate drag, desperately fending off high priced bankers looking to buy your land and convert it into a golf course. I wonder if they did make it, it’d be rated M for mature?

THE FORCE EXISTS!CERN, the European Council for Nuclear Research (acronym is in French “Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire”) has confirmed the existence of THE FORCE, always mentioned in the George Lucas space opera Star Wars, CERN has been able to document and conduct experiments on it, and openly says “it exists”. One of the researchers are currently looking into the dark side of their standard model, on the behest of a a dark-matter researcher “Dave Vader” and more may join his research study, away from CERN.

Groupon and Uber team-up – Just when you thought they couldn’t get bigger, Groupon and Uber are teaming up to give you Grouber, a car service that will allow you to get to the places you need to so you can redeem that Groupon, and what’s more, their drivers are cats! Be sure to buckle up and no catnip tipping the drivers, unless they’re off duty.

Take a picture of your food, while you’re making it. – Samsumg has developed a butcher’s knife that can slice, dice, take calls, take a picture of your filet while you’re slicing it, and read the recipe, all on their wireless knife device. With ceramic design, the knife will never rust, and diamond design ensures the knife will never go dull. The handle is also foldable, for convenience and waterproof for easy clean-up. It also comes with KNOX security, to ensure you never cut yourself with the knife’s sharp blade and the human blood sensor is available to prevent violent human on human usage. (Man, Samsung thought of everything, didn’t they?)

T-Mobile wants you to buy a phone – for Fluffy. – T-Mobile is offering, for an additional $5 on your current family plan, a smartphone for your family pet. Whether it be for your cat, dog, goldfish, iguana, parrot, or hamster, T-mobile wants you to be able to stay connected… why a smartphone? Most likely so Spot will stop stealing your phone to shoot his sweet Frisbee catch selfie.

PlayStationFlow – Now you can take your Playstation game play into a swimming pool?! With the Playstation Flow, you can experience the underwater immersion first hand with the Flow goggles and arm and leg bands. If you can’t swim, or don’t have a ready pool nearby, you can still use the technology anywhere. Just think of it as Playstation’s version of the Wii Fit.

Tidy Drone – If you own a cat, you maybe interested in this. Tidycat’s Innovation Lab is testing out a cat litter drone, so you won’t have to clean up after your favorite pet. Check out the test footage above.

We hope you enjoyed our April Fool’s Day edition.

Just some final news – You may have noticed an uptick of social media posts and blog posts from us lately. We here at The Mass INvasion (with it’s parent companies Headstepper Media and Queens Kings Hatmen) are happy to announce we have recently partnered up with Cowboy Ventures for $4 Billion dollars through their Unicorn program. We were one of their chosen businesses, and we’re grateful to be joining the Unicorn Club, especially being one of the few media companies to do so. We are additionally honored that we have, so far, been the most highly evaluated start-up media partnership for the organization, to date.

As for Pedro and I, we will be part of the continued growth of The Mass INvasion, and are scheduled to speak at TED next year as well as schedule a panel at, G3, Disrupt NY, Social Media Week NYC, GENCON, and San Diego and New York Comicon. Pedro is scheduling a move for him and his family to their private island in Hawaii so he could finish his memoir and establish Mancave Hawaii for About Men Radio. My family and I will be moving out there soon after, with the rest of the Headstepper family.

After completing my documentary, I will finish the writing and production of my upcoming album with Timbaland. Guest artists include Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Missy Elliot, and some other surprise performers. The album is scheduled to release in time for New York Comicon this year. The album tour will start sometime around the beginning of next year. We will push the promotion of the documentary at Cannes, Sundance, and Tribeca during that time. In the meantime, I’ll see folks at the upcoming World Series of Poker event. My husband and I will be playing for 5 different children’s charities across the country. We look forward to seeing you at our events throughout the year.

Janifer is an award winning singer, performer, blogger and photographer, who loves tech, video games, pop culture, travel and cuisine. She has worked for 2 of the top 3 major record labels and presently works for a cable network.